Panther Pride prepares for Christmas Spectacular

November 20, 2009
Filed under Drill Team, News

The Panther Pride has begun preparing for their Christmas Spectacular show on Dec. 17.

“It’s just a really short kind of recital where Panther Pride does a lot of dances that are all Christmas-themed,” Captain Madeline DuBose said. “It gets everyone in the Christmas spirit.”

According to DuBose, most of the choreography has been kept from the first Christmas Spectacular show two years ago.

“Most of it stems from the original ideas of the officers of 2008, who were the first officers to put on the Christmas show,” she said. “But this year we’re changing a few of the dances and the opening number. The opening number is kind of supposed to follow The Polar Express, and we have a train.”

DuBose said a short playoff season gave the drill team more time to practice for the Christmas Spectacular.

“Now we have the rest of November and all of December to prepare for the show. It’s the only thing we have going on,” she said. “Last year we only went to the second round of playoffs, so this year we only have one more week than last year, but of course one more week makes a lot of difference.”

Director Johnna Walker said the team practices in the morning and after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

“They start about 7:30 in the morning, and they practice until 9,” she said. “Then they practice after school until 5:30 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so that’s three hours a day two days a week and an hour and a half two days a week.”

Walker said the team first learned the finale and the squad routines, which the girls had to sign up for to determine which group they would be in.

“What we try to do is we honor seniors, who either get their first or second choice,” she said. “Re-runs usually get one of their three choices, and as much as we can honor new members’ requests, we do, but sometimes we have to put them in a dance that maybe was their fourth choice, depending on different dances and their popularity.”

The JV Drill also has a part in the Christmas Spectacular.

“The JV Drill does one routine for the show, and that’s ‘Hot Chocolate,’” JV Drill director Debbie Hemphill said. “They’ve done it every year, so it’s a traditional thing for them. They’re the elves, so they also do all the skits between performances.”

Sophomore Kaitlyn Cook said that as a Panther Pride new member who was on JV Drill last year, she has a bigger role in the show this year.

“We do a lot more dances this year. In JV Drill we only had one dance and did skits, but this year I have four or five dances,” she said. “It’s fun, it’s a lot of hard work, but the hard work will pay off.”

Junior Brooke Lazarine said Christmas Spectacular will have a variety of dances.

“There’s a jazz dance, a lyrical dance, a character dance, a tap dance and of course the finale at the end where we kick,” she said. “We have all these different kinds of dances, so there’s something for everyone.”

The drill team will present the show five times on Dec. 17th only.

“It’s a one-day-only type thing,” senior Christie Squiers said. “We perform all day on the 17th at the middle school, and then we have one showing in the evening for parents and family.”

Panther Pride members will sell tickets for $7 each. Tickets will also be available at the door.